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How to paint over previously dark painted walls? Please help!

14 years ago

My husband and I just bought a 7 year old house in which several rooms have been painted very dark colors. One is bright, deep red, another one purple (like the color of an eggplant), another maroon/wine color and another navy blue. We plan on filling in nail holes and sanding and then washing the walls. I figured if we paint over these walls with a lighter color, they will need to be primed and one or two coats of paint used? Is that right? But my question is, if we want to paint over these dark colors, like for instance the red, with another color equally as dark such as brown, or dark blue-green over the maroon wine colored walls, would we still have to use primer? Could we get away with just one coat of paint? We are thinking about using either ACE Royal or 2nd. highest grade of Valspar or 2nd highest of S/W. In this instance, is one paint better than others? We need to watch our budget as the whole house was badly neglected and needs to be done before move-in, however we want to do it right.

Really appreciate any advice, as the last time we painted was years ago and that was with pastel colors covering white walls! Thank you in advance.

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Comments (4)

redbazel
14 years ago
It's actually easier to cover a dark color with a light shade than the other way around. My painting contractor client taught me this years ago.
That said, I think that to go ahead with one coat of primer all over the whole house makes sense. You will get a better feel for the rooms and the lighting and it will be much easier to get a nice smooth painted finish when you choose your colors. I've recently painted both my kitchen and my long entry with Ace Sensations flat matte finish. It went on so nice and is supposed to be a washable finish. I loved the look. And my kitchen was red. Put on one coat of white primer and started painting. Keep in mind that even if you use one of the better quality one-coat paints, you will still save money by using primer first. It's less expensive than paint, and if you wanted to skip the primer step, you would for sure need two coats of paint.
Red
fab50
14 years ago
BenMoore's Aura is self priming and covers most colors in one coat, never more than two. It is available to sample in 2 ounce jars in the "Affinity" color palette. That would be an inexpensive to way to try this high end paint on your dark colors and see if it will cover well. And it provides a beautiful depth of color unlike other paints.
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Wowzers, there are some elegant rooms here! Kitchenaddict, thanks for starting this thread -- great idea! trailrunner, it's Old Fashion Milk Paint Company's Safe Paint for walls. It can be painted over previous paint jobs & has a more even coverage than the regular milk paint. The finish is rustic: rough & slight imperfections, but that's part of the look. The color is unbelievable. It looks rich & vibrant no matter what the lighting: dark days, bright days, incandescent light, morning, noon or dusk. The color shifts with the light changes like all paint colors do -- tomato soup red, copper, burnt orange -- but it never goes dull or dingy or grayish. Always beautiful. I like it much better than the Farrow & Ball. I have a bedroom painted in a soft blue milk paint -- same thing, the wall color is always amazing. There are two other companies I'm interested to try: Anna Sova milk paints with a palette range of 500 colors and The Earth Pigment Company's mix your own colors with a milk paint base. p.s. I signed up for RAGBRAI again! Lottery is May 1st. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
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I just painted a buttermilk yellow over a dark grey wall (don't ask) and for the first two walls I thought I should prime, but I still needed three coats of the yellow to cover (I paint mostly with a brush, it's only two coats with a roller). Then on the last wall I ran out of primer so used leftover beige paint... and it covered way better than the primer. I'm no expert, but my conclusion is that primer doesn't cover as well as paint. It seems to me that primer is meant to promote adhesion, not to colour things. In your situation the question is evenness, not coverage per se, so I could go over your splotches with the closest thing you have to the original wall colour. Then paint your final colour, probably two coats will do. KarinL
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paintguy22
14 years ago
Don't think of primer as a tool used to help with coverage over dark colors. This is like one of those old wives tales that just isn't true, but somehow everyone thinks it is. Primer is a sealer and using it will mean your topcoats will perform better. But, primer covers terribly. Also, wash your walls first before patching. You don't want to wash off your patchwork.

If you want to do it right, one coat of paint is hardly ever enough, unless you are using flat paint. If you are using anything washable (eggshell, satin, semi-gloss) then two coats is needed for sheen uniformity and that second coat is what gives the paint that film build that is required for the paint to be really durable and washable.
nutmegxo
14 years ago
Years ago we had a dark navy blue dining room and I had primed it with two coats of BIN primer before painting it Antique White. The results were beautiful and created a nice clean base. As for painting your color, I have always heard that two coats are necessary to achieve the best color results.

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